1. Field
The present invention relates to wireless communication systems generally and specifically, to methods and apparatus for message compression in preparation for transmission in a wireless communication system.
2. Background
There is an increasing demand for packetized data services over wireless communication systems. As traditional wireless communication systems are designed for voice communications, the extension to support data services introduces many challenges. The conservation of bandwidth is the overwhelming concern for most designers. In uni-direction transmissions, such as broadcast transmissions, a single broadcast content is provided to multiple users. The users are identified by a unique identifier which is then included in addressing information. In such a system, multiple infrastructure elements may be required to duplicate the broadcast packets so as to identify each of the multiple intended receivers. The duplication of transmission signals uses up valuable bandwidth thus reducing the efficiency of the communication system, and increases the processing requirements of intermediate infrastructure elements. For a broadcast service in particular, the number of target recipients may be prohibitively large, thus creating problems of resource allocation and loss of available bandwidth.
There is a need, therefore, for an efficient and accurate method of transmitting data to multiple recipients in a wireless communication system. Further, there is a need for a method of routing broadcast data to multiple users, wherein each user is uniquely identified as a target recipient.
Embodiments disclosed herein address the above stated needs by providing a method for routing IP packets in a wireless communication system, wherein an outer header identifying a multicast group is appended to each transmission frame.
In one aspect, a method for transmitting Internet Protocol packets in a wireless transmission system supporting broadcast transmissions includes generating a first transmission frame, transmitting the first transmission frame with an inner header identifying the source and destination of the first transmission frame, applying an outer header to the first transmission frame and inner header, the outer header identifying a multicast group destination for the first transmission frame.
In another aspect, an infrastructure element for processing Internet Protocol packets in a wireless transmission system supporting broadcast transmissions includes a means for receiving a first transmission frame having an inner header identifying the source and destination of the first transmission frame, a means for applying an outer header to the first transmission frame and inner header, the outer header identifying a multicast group destination for the first transmission frame, and a means for transmitting the first transmission frame with the outer header and inner header to the multicast group.
In still another aspect, in a wireless communication system supporting a broadcast service, a communication signal transmitted via a carrier wave, the communication signal having a plurality of transmission frames, each of the plurality of transmission frames includes a payload of broadcast content, an inner header identifying a source and a destination of the payload, and an outer header identifying a multicast group destination for the payload.